Awakening: Chaos Spills Forth
Arrival Naraka . A place so terrible that not a single soul who dared venture near ever left intact, if at all. It was here that a secret slumbered, a secret that would establish itself in the subconscious of all men and women of every time period since its incarnation. Only a madman would dare penetrate the depths of chaos. Rei Mokuzai , the host of Beelzebub , was such a madman. A shadow, dressed in all black, he walked with purpose. Armed with nothing more than his wits, magic and a deadly sword, the former criminal sought to enter the forsaken grounds and plumb its depths for a treasure beyond comprehension, the remaining seven Demon Lords, who slept contentedly in their stone prisons, only waking for brief periods to thrash about and to seek freedom. The sky above him turned gently from blue to red, as if some giant being had bled over the heavens themselves. At least by that, he dared to assume he had been on the right track. Through the crimson sky and the sparse clouds above, the Sun's light was weaker than it had been elsewhere. Probably due to the magic that lingers in the air, Rei assumed as his gaze turned skyward. He enjoyed the weakened light, which until recently had been far more harsh on his body, almost wanting to reducing him to ash for the attempted blasphemy he would commit by nearing the damned ground which bore the name Naraka. After another ten minutes of walking, the ground had become more unstable, large gouges sundered the earth, rocks jutted upwards haphazardly and in some places, even solid ground seemed to be little more than loose dirt that looked ready to collapse under his weight, not that he would fall. With Beelzebub's powers at his disposal, the Seller could simply walk over any gap, at the cost of nearly losing his own sanity to the devil within. To progress forward, he clambered over the largest possible rocks he could. One particualr rock had shifted under his weight, collapsing, heading straight for one of the massive splits in the ground, trying to take the man with it. Waiting to see how far he would need to jump, Rei balked. The chasm looked rather large from his position. He estimated a good twenty, thirty yards, minimum. Below, he knew there was only death, and to try and run along the falling stone’s face to the safety of the cliff it now fell over was suicidal. Despite his demonic advantage, Rei knew the fear of falling as much as knew the fear of dying at swordpoint. If Beelzebub had any inkling of being uncooperative, it could spell disaster, as would just standing around. Mustering up his will, he opened the corrupted floodgates of power that lied within his own soul and began to pull and tug on the devilish power inside him, willing the monstrous Beelzebub to empower him, to give him control of the winds, the power to walk where no mortal could. In a brief moment, Rei went from being in danger of death to floating as if gravity held no sway over him. For that, he was thankful. Walking forward, as he had been doing, he watched as ripples formed under his feet, a translucent green wave that he knew so well and even felt a measure of comfort from. With every step, he could feel the monster inside. But it was quiet, as if something lulled Beelzebub's nigh unstoppable hunger for Rei's body, mind and soul. The mere prospect scared him deeply. Nothing he knew could stop a demon's hunger, not in this life at least. He could only rationalize it as him giving the wind Demon Lord exactly what he wanted for the past seven years, a means to return home. The rest of his treck to the place where the Saints of yore had specifically placed a barrier was calm and without issue, except for isolated quakes that rent the parched outskirts of Naraka. The barrier in question was one that no mortal was so much as capable of passing without setting off an explosive assault from the laser weapon, Etherion, which was linked to the barrier in such a way that even without explicit permission from the council, the area would be vaporized by the weapon's destructive blast. Rei, naturally, was already pondering how to sneak past without triggering the hazard it posed. The barrier was a glistening, glass-like wall that appeared impassible and solid. Rei began to inspect the mass with every intent to discover a weak point, a back door of sorts...anything and everything that could allow him in without accidentally wiping out his legacy in a single, deadly moment. That's when Beelzebub made his move. Shoving Rei's own will to the side, the force that once cowed in respect for the man who bested it in battle took the stage as the dominant persona. The Seller himself, was left to watch as his body rebelled against his commands, obeying the new master. Beelzebub, as if rubbing in the fact Rei had been taken over, simply told his former host to bear witness and to not resist. In return for getting this far, the demon only needed his body for a moment or two to break the barrier without tripping any other magics that were bound to it and would return the mortal's shell as it was, virtually unharmed. Rei agreed to sit idly by, unable to come up with an effective counter beyond not trusting the demonic entity's promise, but no other choice made sense. If there was anyone capable of manipulating the land to be able to enter the cavern where the other seven slumbered, it would be a being who was a part of the world itself. "Here me, my place of refuge. I the son of the blue heavens and the will of a mad man am again back to this unsacred plain to reclaim my brethren so that we may again lay siege to this world. I speak these words through my host, who I believe is of like mind to our cause." The words, although Rei's voice, were not his words, but Beelzebub's. As the words faded into a low echo, Rei felt his own spirit forced forward to again control his body. That's when the ground tremored, this time with far more force than just cracking the ground. An entire section of the ground seemed to explode, revealing a small stairway leading down below the barrier itself. Rei chuckled when he realized why the stairs existed. The Saints's walls weren't designed to reach underground, especially if the only way to go below the diamond hard ground of Naraka was to bring a demonic entity along. Descending the steps, Rei found himself in a long hallway, which seemed to reach on into a gloomy eternity, nothing between the stairway and whatever end it had could be seen. Abandon All Hope The seemingly endless hallway which Rei now traversed had few torches that were magically lit along its length, at least allowing him sight in the gloomy tunnel. Along the walls, he could make out carvings, words, names even, all in the tongue of whatever people settled the desolate world, and he could even read them. Perhaps it was nothing more than Beelzebub's influence on his body making itself manifest. The carvings told of a man who had the gall to try and command all eight demon lords, with disastrous results. He had been consumed by the darkness of the lords, left to die as his own body destroyed itself to maintain the power it gained. Rei simply swore to himself that on his honor, he would not suffer that very fate, even though his aim was to command the lords, single-handedly. After what seemed like hours in the dull, boring and dreary hall, he reached the end, and discovered a small, circular chamber with eight pedestals surrounding a strange seal imprinted on the ground. On all but one of the pedestals was a gem, each the size of a man's heart. They were what he risked life and limb for, the remaining seven lord stones, right in front of his face. In his glee, he walked forward to inspect the gems, only to cross over the exact center of the seal on the ground, causing it to glow the same translucent green that characterized Beelzebub's magic. Energy flashed like lightning as Rei felt his conscious mind melding into that of strange bird-like beings which reacted to the chaotic energy of the eight lords once more together as one. The bird-beasts, he soon learned, were the legendary guardians of this place, who had left him be out of fear and respect for Beelzebub, the only one of eight who had escaped their promised protection back when the land had first been warded off by the council. Rei realized he could order them about simply because of his connection to the lord of air. They would prove useful to him in time. Delving back into his own mind, he sought the knowledge only Beelzebub could give him. Knowledge on how to guide others to this place while he began the ritual to unite the lords into one being, manifesting the end result that only Zeref had ever done before. After gleaning his demonic ally's mind of what he needed, he held out his hand as if accepting an alm from an invisible man. "To me, gallant friends, those who hear this call, the way is open, if thou will come to me. I speaketh of thee, who are wanting to change this world, and to me, I summon ye forth to where I am. Ride with haste, for the time cometh closer. Together, we will remake this lost world, with the help of powers beyond mortal understanding. If you hear this call, then I bid ye come from the eastern entrance of Naraka. There, the way makes itself known to thee." Twenty green orbs appeared from nowhere, formed by Rei's magic alone it seemed. The orbs flew from the cave and out into the air above, before breaking free to seek those whom were like their summoner, willing to change the world to make it a better place. The gathering had begun. Rei streched his will again into the bird-men, and commanded them in the name of a God he never heard of before, to stand vigil at the outskirts of Naraka and to await the twenty he had just called. A massive flutter of wings and a gutteral roar, and the bird-men took flight, positioning themselves in the place they had been commanded in the name of the god of demons, to wait for the chosen ones to appear.